After months of campaigning, Equity has secured £15,000 in funds for performers who were left unpaid when Manchester Pride went into administration last year.
Lots of people thought they’d never get anything for these gigs they worked over a year ago, but it just goes to show that you should never give up.
Karen Lockney, Equity North West Official
The money comes from contributions from businesses within the 'social action pot', put forwards by Manchester City Council, and is not taxpayers' money. While the amount doesn’t meet the full £70,000 owed to more than 50 performers, it provides around 20% of unpaid fees. Coupled with a crowdfunder run by Equity member Nathaniel Hall which raised £12,500, the total raised for unpaid Pride performers is now £27,500, almost 40% of owed monies.
Equity is contacting the 50+ performers who came forwards last year after Manchester Pride collapsed, leaving professional performers out of pocket by between £150 and £5,000 each. The union aims to distribute a percentage of unpaid fees to each artist.
The 2026 Manchester Village Pride (MVP), which took place last weekend over the August bank holiday, was one of the first Pride events ever to operate on a union agreement, after Equity and MVP signed a house agreement for minimum terms and conditions for performers, including stronger safeguards around payments. The smaller event, run under a new Community Interest Company rooted in Manchester's Gay Village, saw dozens of performers land gigs for the event, with tickets selling out ahead of opening.
Karen Lockney, Equity North West Official, said: “This is great news for the many performers who were left high and dry last year when Manchester Pride went bust. Lots of people thought they’d never get anything for these gigs they worked over a year ago, but it just goes to show that you should never give up.
“Performers are so often the people who end up out of pocket, dismissed and treated badly, but there would literally be no Pride without performers. We’re grateful to Manchester City Council, and to everyone who donated to the crowdfunder, and we’re especially pleased that Manchester Village Pride went ahead this year on an Equity agreement. We’re also encouraged by the promise of discussion on worker representation at other events in the city, which we hope will lead to more union agreements and better terms and safety standards for all workers.”
Cllr Garry Bridges, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: "We've been clear throughout that we sympathised with the plight of performers left unpaid when the former organisers of Pride went bust.
"We've been working with Equity to find a meaningful way to help those worst affected without using public money to meet the debts of a failed business and I'm pleased that we've been able to reach this constructive solution together.
"The event and its performers have a bright future under new organisers Manchester Village Pride and it's great that they have strong arrangements in place to ensure that performers can have confidence going forwards and similar issues can't happen again."
Nathaniel Hall, creative producer, performer and activist, said: "It's encouraging to hear that Manchester City Council have found £15k to help creatives out of pocket from last year's collapse of Manchester Pride. Even though this won't cover all the losses, the gesture is really welcome. Equity members have been working for months to get this result. LGBTQ+ Equity members can be proud they have a union that has their backs when times are tough."
